A Mount Washington man, arrested twice on criminal mischief charges since he arrived here in 2007 from Buffalo, N.Y., today was ordered to stand trial on 100 counts of graffiti vandalism.

Ian DeBeer, who turned 22 today, remains free on $25,000 bond, pending formal arraignment on the charges, all misdemeanors.

Pittsburgh Police Det. Daniel Sullivan testified at a preliminary hearing this morning that Mr. DeBeer was responsible for drawing the name, "HERT," in nearly all of the incidents in the city and suburbs.

The detective said the suspect also is accused of having assisted another graffiti vandal who uses the name, "OBVS."

Images of the two suspects were captured on video surveillance cameras at a business in the Strip District.

Twenty-two of the reported incidents were from government-related properties in Pittsburgh, including $1,500 in cleanup damage to the Police Bureau's Office of Organized Crime, Narcotics and Intelligence on Penn Avenue in the Strip District.

Mr. DeBeer caused $212,000 in property damage. The total includes $65,800 to city-owned property, $18,000 to two railroad company properties, and $127,400 to privately owned structures, including two private residences.

Det. Sullivan testified that property owners or their insurance carriers have been saddled with the cleanup bills. It costs $1,500 to remove a graffiti mural, which is a drawing more intricate than line drawings that the officer defines as graffiti tags. A tag cost about $300 to remove, he said.

Under cross examination by defense attorney Patrick Nightingale, the officer conceded that the investigators believe copycats are responsible for some tags and murals that use the name HERT. He said the suspect's authentic drawings all bear between three and five identifying markers within each picture that points to Mr. DeBeer.

Det. Sullivan said Mr. DeBeer is a member of a band of graffiti artists who use the initials, "NSF," which stands for "Not Strictly Freights."

Daniel Montano, 23, the region's most prolific graffiti vandal, was associated with the same group, police said.

Mr. DeBeer's volume of cases is second only to those attributed to Mr. Montano, who was sentenced last year to 2 1/2 to 5 years in jail after he pleaded guilty to 79 cases.

Investigators said Mr. Montano caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. At one time he was the city's most-wanted graffiti artist. Mr DeBeer had been the second most wanted.